Belated

Hi. I've been gone for a LONG time. I am sorry. I will probably be sporadic for a while.

But, I did want to say hello and post this picture. Mostly because I love the app my husband used to take the photo... and because I love my birthday.

Cheers!

Happy Flag Day!

How great is this poster?!

Hope you've been enjoying the last days of Spring; seven more days 'til summer!
{photo source: wikipedia}

Simple Pleasures

Earlier today I purchased soup from my work's cafeteria. I picked up a soup spoon and grinned. I love soup spoons.

Here are a few other simple pleasures that make me smile:
- Sporks.
- Cherry slurpee from 7-11 (or a Cherry Icee from anywhere).
- Lattes.
- Solving a crossword puzzle.
- Tomatoes + Basil fresh from the garden.
- Spontaneous, unsolicited expressions of love.
- Fresh baked bread.
- Farmer's Markets.
- Cool, foggy mornings.

Gotta be quick

Oh my - It is already almost 1:00p!

I have been a busy lady today:
- Went grocery shopping
- Made caramel buttercream frosting, followed by the act of frosting cupcakes
- Baked half a dozen bagels
- Prepped an appetizer for a party tomorrow
- Cleaned up my kitchen mess
- Packed
- Showered
- Took the dog out x2

All because... I'm going to Fargo!! My friend Gina should be at my house in four minutes. Several months ago she asked if I would be interested in running the Fargo Half Marathon with her and I said sure. The race is tomorrow morning. It's her first half and my second 'official' half. I think we'll have a lot of fun. I just hope the rain holds off.

I had intended for this post to have pictures of the cupcakes, bagels and more... but I just ran out of time.

With all that, I still needed to blog because I offered Round II of Pay it Forward. Okay, it really is still Round I, but since it involves a second trip to the Post Office... you can see my thought process.

The winner is: Jen! Congrats Jen! I'll get your stuff in the mail soon.

Oops - gotta run. Gina's here and I still need to shut down. Have an outstanding weekend! [Sorry... I didn't have time to proofread. I hope this post is coherent.]

Pay it Forward, take II

Back in October I posted about an opportunity to Pay It Forward and send gifts to five readers of this blog. I never posted a follow-up, probably because it took me until the end of January to send them, but I did indeed ship out five gifts to the lucky winners.

One was returned. Apparently because of my incredible delay in getting the gifts assembled, I missed one of the winners and she moved. To Korea. Seriously.

So... does anyone else want to play? If so, leave a comment on this post. Winner(s) will be selected on Friday. The package will be mailed soon thereafter, because I am in desperate need of stamps and must go to the Post Office.

{the goods: a tea wallet + four bags of tea, a dish towel avec hearts, a note pad and lip gloss*}

*Outside of my uncle, I don't believe there are many other male readers of this blog. But if a guy wants to play (and wins), I will put together a more masculine version and select a female recipient for the girly gift.

Ten on Tuesday

1. If your name was a verb, what would “to Nicole” mean?
Oh gosh. I know I've used my name as a verb before too, but I can't remember what I had done. I'm sure it was something forgetful or clumsy or caused a mess.

2. What myth have you always wanted to prove or bust?
I received a forward on this a month or so ago. It's a video of people around the world using their cell phones to pop popcorn. Kind of alarming.

For the record, it isn't true. I searched snopes.com to find out if it was real or not and it isn't. In fact, there is a full CNN story with the person who created this video. It was an advertisement. Here's a link to the story (scroll through the egg cooking part, the popcorn portion is at the bottom).

3. If you had the ability to get a message out to the entire world, what would you say?
Babies are born without 'traditional' knee caps; it's just cartilage until they are 3-5 years old. It's crazy and true. I mean... it's mentioned on wikipedia, after all! I share this interesting tidbit with everyone I know who has a baby.
*I realize this question is meant to be much more profound, but I'm just not in a profound state of mind right now.

4. I know you’ve answered a similar question before, but it’s been awhile. Please name your current top 10 blogs.
I follow a variety of blogs: food, fitness, crafts, friends, parties and misc. Sometime I'll post some links, but for now categories will need to cut it.

5. Do you have a junk drawer?
Yes. It's actually a portable plastic drawer. I think it's stackable, but we only have the one. We keep stamps, flower food, rubber bands and other 'stuff' in there.

6. Bottled water or tap?
Tap. It's free. I'm cheap.

7. As a kid, did you have a favorite Biblical story?
Noah's Ark. I have a lost of little trinkets, sewed a pillow and recovered a chair, in Noah stuff too.
8. What is your favorite black and white movie?
To Kill a Mockingbird

9. Aside from your engagement/wedding rings, what is your favorite piece of jewelry that you own? Does it have a story behind it?
I really love the pearl necklace and earring set Rich gave me for our wedding day. I very rarely wear them, but they are very special to me.

10. What sports/activities do you hope your kids will be involved in? (Answer for both a boy and a girl)
Boy or girl, I would like him/her to try something with music, either sing or play an instrument. Definitely complete swimming lessons and try a team sport.

Weekend Wrap-up (sans photos)

Eh. I don't feel like adding photos to this post. So you'll just have to take my word for it that these things really took place.
Speaking of pictures, I've heard wordpress allows you to drag and drop photos into a post. Is that true? I don't use wordpress so I don't know. What I do know is adding and arranging photos in a post is a tedious task. Is there any advice you can share to make it easier?

:: Baked cookies. Ate lots of cookie dough and then ate no less than five cookies fresh from the oven.
:: Added fresh mushrooms and jalapenos to our $4.99 Papa Murphy pizza. Such a bargain.
:: Ran 20 miles. Fort Snelling to St. Anthony Main and back. C-R-A-Z-Y!
:: Culver's: one scoop vanilla custard + numerous chocolate chip cookie dough pieces = one very happy girl
:: Inspired by an opportune meeting with his BBQ mentor, Rich smoked two pork shoulders. Y.U.M.
:: Hosted an impromptu dinner with the family to share said delicious pork.
:: Made bagels. From scratch.
:: Outlet shopped with my mom and aunt - bought new crocs, kitchen stuff, plants.
:: Watched my mom plant our new lilac bush.
:: Quested for potting equipment.
:: Plants planted!! [Separate post to come, with pictures]
:: Walked the dog and lamented on the incredibly pleasant weather.
:: Rested and readied for the upcoming week.

It was a truly lovely weekend.

What did you do this weekend?